Half century of manufacturing at old Molins and MPE site to end tomorrow

Kevin Mullan

Published:12:38Updated:12:42Thursday 30 March 2017

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A half century of manufacturing at the old Molins, Maydown Prescision Engineering (MPE) and Schivo site in Derry is set to end tomorrow after the administrators of Schivo NI announced on Thursday that they had been unable to find a white knight buyer for the stricken aerospace firm.

A spokesperson for Duff and Phelps, administrators of Schivo NI, said: “Regrettably, despite a thorough marketing process and having secured the support of key customers, the administrators have not received any acceptable offers for the business and assets as a going concern.

“As a result, the business will cease trading as of Friday, March 31, and of the remaining employees, eight will be retained to support the winding down of operations.

“At this difficult time, we will work with all employees who will be affected by redundancy to ensure they receive the information and guidance they need to claim monies owed from the Redundancy Payments Office and to support all employees in seeking new opportunities.”

Under the Molins, MPE and Schivo brands there had been a near-constant manufacturing presence on the Maydown site for fifty years.

Molins, which started life as a cigar-maker in pre-revolutionary Cuba, first established a cigarette-machine plant at Maydown in the 1960s.

MPE arose from the ashes of the old Molins plant following a closure crisis in 1984.

The aerospace manufacturer was ultimately acquired by the Waterford headquartered Schivo Group nearly two years ago but was placed in administration in January.